Difficult Truth

In an old abandoned house at the end of Falls Street, plants took over the foundation, as it was crumbling away into nothing. A young high school girl after school would find herself walking towards this house. Stepping inside felt as if she had a place that wanted her, like she had a purpose in life. Every day going to school was a struggle, always finding herself leaving early or crying behind the school. She could never go home and tell her parents about what was happening. Her mom was a drug addict that got drunk and high every night, not having a care in the world. Sara knew her mom was hurting her unborn brother by her actions. Simply just taking the consequences in and processing it through her mind, she knew her brother wouldn’t survive. Her father, on the other hand, was never around; when he was around, he would always be very verbally abusive, ending up in arguments over nothing important. Her younger brother, James, being verbally abused by his words, felt like torture to Sara, not knowing how she could stop the abuse from happening, only knowing it could only get worse from there. With nowhere to turn to feel alone and bullied at school, she soon found herself falling into a deep dark hole, finding a comfort blanket of loneliness and depression wrapping around her as if it was the only way.

It was a normal day for Sara, dragging herself out of bed, waking up her little brother, getting ready for school, making breakfast, and making sure they both got on the bus. There were constant glares pointed towards her as she entered the freshman hallway, heading to her locker. Getting used to this procedure, she walked with her head down looking at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone in her grade. As usual, she opened her locker and got her first couple books only to be forcefully thrown to the ground by the bully in her grade, Charlie Whitworth. He was always calling Sara names and pushing her around daily, almost becoming too much to handle. The rest of the day normally ended up as it begins and sometimes even worse. But today was different for some reason. Charlie only had to say one specific word to have her break, one that just happened to be what she thought was true deep within her. She didn’t want it to be true but she couldn't change the past. "Whore" was all he had to say to break Sara mentally. Fully in tears, she ran out of the school, leaving all of her belongings on the ground near her open locker.

Running as fast as she could non-stop, she ran to the old abandoned house that she could call home, slamming the door behind her quickly, leaving splinters in the palm of her hand. Not caring, big droplets of tears landing on the torn carpet, she ran to the nearest bedroom and closed the door. Seeing the mess from the time before, blood stains on the mattress, the sharp object shattered across the mattress on the floor. Her heart pounded, “thud, thud, thud,” and her mind raced, not able to focus on just one thought by itself. Quickly, she stepped and sat down on the empty area on the mattress, slowly pulling her knees to her chest, unwanted thoughts racing through her head.

Only one thought came to mind. She felt like it was her only hope, her only freedom. She reached her shaky hand into her pocket and removed her pocket knife slowly. Only looking at it... her mind went blank, not able to think, only act. She drew the blade out and brought it to her arm not minding or taking the time to pull her sleeve up. She cut through the fabric, only thinking of one thing, "this is the only way," beginning to taste metal in her mouth as the blade entered the skin…

No one knew where Sara was that night, didn’t question nor went looking. Her belonging were still in the same spot as she left them at school. James cried himself asleep in Sara’s bed that night, not knowing where his sister was. Her parents did not even bother to look or even check to see if she was home. The next morning, James skipped school to go look for his missing sister, first finding clues at her school about what had happened. Looking at her school supplies scattered around, he just simply crouched down and gathered them up, shutting her locker and bringing the backpack with him. Walking down to the end of the street, he saw the abandoned house that he’d seen his sister walk into thousands of times, and he decided to give it a shot. Walking into the house, he instantly felt chills crawl over his skin like ants. Starting his search, he went through the first couple of rooms no sign of Sara anywhere. Calling her name, he got no response.

It took James an hour to look through all of the rooms but one. "What was behind the door?" he asked himself as he opened the door. Falling to his knees, with tears streaming down his face, he saw his sister lying motionless on the bloodstained mattress.

At school, Charlie Whitworth never knew or understood that what was such a simple word to him could ruin someone else’s life. James was the only one who knew the full story of what has happened in his sister’s life. She was bullied most of the time she was at school. She only had one boyfriend. That boyfriend turned out to be a jerk and raped her at only age 13. Sara didn’t have a normal life or a regular one, for that matter.

James never left from Sara’s side that night. Nobody ever came looking for them. He stayed there feeling the same blanket as Sara had wrapped around him and left him in sorrow and pain…